Multifunctional vanadium nitride@N-doped carbon composites for kinetically enhanced lithium-sulfur batteries

On the heels of growing demand for electric vehicles and storage applications, lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries with a high energy density have attracted significant attention. Enhancing the redox reaction kinetics, depressing the shuttle effect and the controlled deposition of lithium sulfide are simultaneously in urgent requirement for high-performance Li-S batteries. Herein we report a vanadium nitride@N-doped carbon nanowire (VN@C) hybrid composite that combines the merits of polar VN and conductive carbon to achieve fast sulfur species transformation, high adsorption of polysulfides and restricted self-discharge behavior. Benefiting from the structure, the resulting compound demonstrates exceptional performance with a high discharge capacity of 875 mA h g(-1) at 1C, a prominent rate capability of 550 mA h g(-1) at 6C and remarkable electrochemical performances even with a high sulfur loading (4.2 mg cm(-2)). This conductive VN@C composite and its electrochemical performance could offer novel insights for further design of Li-S batteries.